AT&T doesn’t give a damn about your privacy

Guess what phone compay has sided with the Department of Homeland Security in an attempt make it easier for people to steal your phone records?

Why, that would be AT&T.; Anybody surprised?

From the beginning of the phone privacy scandal that began a year ago when AMERICAblog bought General Wesley Clark’s phone records, AT&T;/Cingular could not have been less helpful. They denied the problem even existed – as compared to Verizon, which coudln’t have been more helpful to pro-privacy advocates – and now suddenly AT&T; wants to water down the regulations that ensure the problem doesn’t reoccur. Gee, AT&T;, if the problem doesn’t exist then why are you worried about the regs?

Corporate greed and lack of concern about its customers, thy name is AT&T.; And the fact that the Bush administration is concerned that the new regs might actually stop them from illegally spying on your phone records without the necessary court order, well that’s just icing on the cake.

AT&T; should be ashamed of itself. Perhaps a class action lawsuit might get their attention. Or maybe we just play our strong suit – find every piece of legislation that concerns AT&T;, at the state and federal level, and screw them. I doubt AT&T; would want attorneys general and secretaries of state in all 50 states denouncing the company’s lack of respect for its customers’ privacy.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.